PNA file photo
MANILA -- Two weeks after the Taal Volcano’s explosion in Batangas which displaced families living in nearby communities, the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) said some of the victims are slowly getting back on their feet.
In an interview on Wednesday, DSWD Calabarzon Director Annie Mendoza said people are going back to their homes where danger has been ruled out.
“As of January 29, 8,390 families have returned home,” she said.
This, according to Mendoza, means that some families are already ready to rebuild their lives after receiving enough assistance.
She added that while 274 evacuation camps were already closed as of Wednesday, about four new ones opened in Tanza and Noveleta in Cavite.
The Disaster Response Operations Monitoring and Information Center (DROMIC) of the DSWD-Disaster Response Management Bureau (DRMB) in its updated report said some 35,574 families are staying in 497 evacuation centers in the region.
As part of its mandate to provide technical assistance and resource augmentation to local government units (LGUs), the DSWD has sent augmentation assistance to LGUs responding to the needs of 109,054 families or 412,217 individuals who have been affected by the eruption of Taal Volcano as of January 28.
To date, the agency has so far provided a total of PHP13,023,728 worth of augmentation assistance to the affected families.
The assistance, consisting of 29,043 family food packs (FFPs), 6,360 ready-to-eat food, 1,870 sleeping kits, and 4,643 plastic mats as augmentation support based on the requests of the LGUs.
DSWD emphasized that it has enough resources to assist LGUs and respond to the needs of the affected families.
The Department’s Central Office (CO) and Field Offices (FOs) have a total of P910,245,390 standby funds and stockpile of food and non-food items.
On January 24, Human Settlements and Urban Development Secretary Eduardo del Rosario said the government is already setting up the necessary infrastructure to provide water and electricity to the village that is a potential relocation site for the victims. (PNA)
